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2009–10 British and Irish Cup
Tournament details
Countries	England Ireland  Scotland  Wales
Tournament format(s)	Round-robin and knockout
Date	November 2009 – May 2010
Tournament statistics
Teams	24
Matches played	63
Attendance	103,545 (1,644 per match)
Tries scored	321 (5.1 per match)
Final
Venue	Recreation Ground, Camborne
Attendance	4,240
Champions	Cornish Pirates (1st title)
Runners-up	Munster A
← 2008-09 (Previous)(Next) 2010–11 →

The 2009–10 British and Irish Cup was the first season of the annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional clubs from Britain and Ireland. First round matches began on Friday 20 November 2009 and the final was held on Sunday 16 May 2010.

The first competition was heavily criticised, with one reporter describing it as 'dismal'.

A total of 24 teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales competed in the inaugural competition. Cornish Pirates lifted the cup, defeating Munster A 23–14 in the final.

Teams

The allocation of teams was as follows:

• – 12 teams from the RFU Championship
• – 3 Irish provinces represented by 'A' teams
• – 3 Scottish sides, 2 top clubs from the Scottish Premiership and Gael Force, a side made up of a combination of National Academy players
• – 6 top clubs from the Principality Premiership

England	Ireland	Scotland	Wales
Bedford Blues Birmingham & Solihull Bristol Cornish Pirates Coventry Doncaster Exeter Chiefs London Welsh Moseley Nottingham Plymouth Albion Rotherham	Leinster A Munster A Ulster Ravens	Ayr Heriot's FP Gael Force	Aberavon Cardiff Llanelli Neath Newport Pontypridd

Competition format

The teams were divided into four pools of six, playing over five weekends during the Autumn International and Six Nations windows. The four pool winners contested a knock-out stage, with semi-finals on 24 and 25 April and the final on 16 May.

Pool stages

Pool A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	T	TB	LB	Pts
Cornish Pirates	5	4	0	1	112	66	+46	15	2	1	19
Leinster A	5	4	0	1	89	65	+24	9	1	1	18
Newport	5	3	1	1	81	54	+27	10	1	1	16
Exeter Chiefs	5	2	0	3	82	82	0	12	1	1	10
Plymouth Albion	5	1	1	3	55	58	−3	5	0	2	8
Gael Force	5	0	0	5	35	129	−94	6	1	0	1

Newport	21 – 14	Exeter
	Stats

Plymouth Albion	13 – 16	Leinster A
	Stats

Cornish Pirates	29 – 8	Gael Force
	Stats

Leinster A	12 – 10	Cornish Pirates
	Stats

Newport	3 – 3	Plymouth Albion
	Stats

Exeter	15 – 0	Gael Force
	Stats

Newport	27 – 5	Gael Force
	Stats

Exeter	10 – 22	Leinster A
	Stats

Plymouth Albion	9 – 13	Cornish Pirates
	Stats

Leinster A	6 – 10	Newport
	Stats

Gael Force	0 – 25	Plymouth Albion
	Stats

Cornish Pirates	34 – 17	Exeter
	Stats

Plymouth Albion	5 – 26	Exeter
	Stats

Cornish Pirates	26 – 20	Newport
	Stats

Gael Force	22 – 33	Leinster A
	Stats

Pool B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	T	TB	LB	Pts
Munster A	5	5	0	0	111	41	+70	14	2	0	22
Bristol	5	4	0	1	122	74	+48	14	2	0	18
Nottingham	5	3	0	2	81	59	+22	11	1	1	14
Neath	5	2	0	3	93	98	−5	12	2	1	11
Coventry	5	1	0	4	126	144	−18	20	2	2	8
Heriot's FP	5	0	0	5	54	171	−117	7	0	1	1

Neath	11 – 18	Bristol
	Stats

Coventry	13 – 20	Munster A
	Stats

Heriot's FP	0 – 5	Nottingham
	Stats

Munster A	18 – 6	Bristol
	Stats

Coventry	57 – 12	Heriot's FP
	Stats

Nottingham	14 – 3	Neath
	Stats

Munster A	18 – 3	Nottingham
	Stats

Bristol	40 – 15	Coventry
	Stats

Heriot's FP	21 – 38	Neath
	Stats

Neath	12 – 21	Munster A
	Stats

Bristol	37 – 14	Heriot's FP
	Stats

Nottingham	43 – 17	Coventry
	Stats

Neath	29 – 24	Coventry
	Stats

Nottingham	16 – 21	Bristol
	Stats

Munster A	34 – 7	Heriot's FP
	Stats

Pool C

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	T	TB	LB	Pts
Ulster Ravens	5	4	1	0	165	62	+103	22	3	0	21
London Welsh	5	4	0	1	137	78	+59	18	3	1	20
Bedford Blues	5	3	0	2	92	94	−2	11	1	0	13
Aberavon	5	2	0	3	51	131	−80	4	0	1	9
Llanelli	5	1	1	3	106	117	−11	11	1	1	8
Moseley	5	0	0	5	69	138	−69	10	1	0	1

Llanelli	16 – 19	Aberavon
	Stats

Moseley	27 – 38	London Welsh
	Stats

Ulster Ravens	29 – 3	Bedford Blues
	Stats

Aberavon	7 – 36	London Welsh
	Stats

Moseley	21 – 32	Ulster Ravens
	Stats

Bedford Blues	36 – 24	Llanelli
	Stats

Llanelli	21 – 21	Ulster Ravens
	Stats

London Welsh	26 – 13	Bedford Blues
	Stats

Aberavon	10 – 0	Moseley
	Stats

Ulster Ravens	21 – 17	London Welsh
	Stats

Bedford Blues	17 – 15	Aberavon
	Stats

Llanelli	35 – 21	Moseley
	Stats

Moseley	0 – 23	Bedford Blues
	Stats

London Welsh	20 – 10	Llanelli
	Stats

Ulster Ravens	62 – 0	Aberavon
	Stats

Pool D

Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	T	TB	LB	Pts
Doncaster	5	5	0	0	163	58	+105	22	5	0	25
Cardiff	5	4	0	1	147	124	+23	20	3	0	19
Rotherham	5	2	0	3	147	127	+20	19	3	1	12
Ayr	5	2	0	3	132	111	+21	14	1	2	11
Pontypridd	5	2	0	3	99	124	−25	12	1	1	10
Birmingham & Solihull	5	0	0	5	76	220	−144	9	0	1	1

Pontypridd	16 – 22	Cardiff
	Stats

Rotherham	52 – 10	Birmingham & Solihull
	Stats

Doncaster	32 – 7	Ayr
	Stats

Ayr	28 – 13	Rotherham
	Stats

Birmingham & Solihull	20 – 51	Cardiff
	Stats

Rotherham	33 – 23	Pontypridd
	Stats

Ayr	49 – 14	Birmingham & Solihull
	Stats

Doncaster	34 – 10	Cardiff
	Stats

Cardiff	34 – 27	Rotherham
	Stats

Doncaster	41 – 8	Birmingham & Solihull
	Stats

Ayr	21 – 22	Pontypridd
	Stats

Pontypridd	11 – 24	Doncaster
	Stats

Rotherham	22 – 32	Doncaster
	Stats

Birmingham & Solihull	24 – 27	Pontypridd
	Stats

Cardiff	30 – 27	Ayr
	Stats

Knock-out stages

Qualifiers

The four pool winners proceeded to the knock out stages.

Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	T	TB	LB	Pts
D	Doncaster	5	5	0	0	163	58	+105	22	5	0	25
B	Munster A	5	5	0	0	111	41	+70	14	2	0	22
C	Ulster Ravens	5	4	1	0	165	62	+103	22	3	0	21
A	Cornish Pirates	5	4	0	1	112	66	+46	15	2	1	19

	Semi-finals				Final
	25 April 2010 - Camborne
	Cornish Pirates	43
					16 May 2010 - Camborne
	Doncaster	5
					Cornish Pirates	23
	24 April 2010 - Thomond Park
					Munster A	14
	Munster A	27
	Ulster Ravens	3

Semi-finals

Munster A	27 – 3	Ulster Ravens
Try: J Manning (2), D Williams, S Archer Con: D Cusack (2/4) Pen: D Cusack (1)	Report Stats	Pen: J McKinney (1)

Cornish Pirates	43 – 5	Doncaster
Try: Davies, Bentley, Morgan, Cattle, Jackson, McGlone Con: Bently (5/6) Pen: Bently	Report	Try: Armitage

Final

Cornish Pirates	23 – 14	Munster A
Try: Winn, McAtee Con: Bentley (2/2) Pen: Bentley (3)	Report Stats	Try: Barnes Pen: Cusack (3)

Recreation Ground, Camborne Attendance: 4,240 Referee: Leighton Hodges

Geography

Team	Stadium	Capacity	City/Area/Country
Aberavon	Talbot Athletic Ground	3,000	Aberavon, Neath Port Talbot, Wales
Ayr	Millbrae	Unknown	Alloway, South Ayrshire, Scotland
Bedford Blues	Goldington Road	4,684	Bedford, Bedfordshire, England
Birmingham & Solihull	Sharmans Cross Road	3,500	Solihull, West Midlands, England
Bristol	Memorial Stadium	12,100	Bristol, England
Cardiff	Cardiff Arms Park	13,500	Cardiff, Wales
Cornish Pirates	Recreation Ground	9,000	Camborne, Cornwall, England
Coventry	Butts Park Arena	4,000	Coventry, West Midlands, England
Doncaster	Castle Park	3,075	Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England
Exeter Chiefs	Sandy Park	7,300 (10,744 by the end of the season)	Exeter, Devon, England
Gael Force	Bridgehaugh	4,000	Stirling, Scotland
Heriot's FP	Goldenacre	Unknown	Edinburgh, Scotland
Leinster A	Donnybrook	7,000	Dublin, Leinster, Ireland
Llanelli	Parc y Scarlets	14,870	Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales
London Welsh	Old Deer Park	5,850	London, England
Moseley	Billesley Common	3,000+ (650 seated)	Birmingham, West Midlands, England
Munster A	Musgrave Park	8,300	Cork, County Cork, Ireland
Neath	The Gnoll	7,500	Neath, Neath Port Talbot, Wales
Newport	Rodney Parade	10,500	Newport, Wales
Nottingham	Meadow Lane	19,588	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England
Plymouth Albion	The Brickfields	6,500	Plymouth, Devon, England
Pontypridd	Sardis Road	7,861	Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales
Rotherham	Clifton Lane	2,500	Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England
Ulster Ravens	Ravenhill Stadium	12,125	Belfast, Ulster, Northern Ireland

References

1. Brian Dick (25 February 2010). "Taxing times for clubs struggling in rugby's Championship". Birmingham Post. Archived from the original on 3 November 2010. Retrieved 3 March 2010.
2. "New British & Irish Cup announced". RTÉ Sport. 6 May 2009. Archived from the original on 9 May 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2009.
3. "Home unions devise British & Irish Cup". The Daily Telegraph. 6 May 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2009.

External links

• Unofficial British and Irish Cup website - latest news, teams etc
• Results from the BBC Archived 2011-02-08 at the Wayback Machine

• British and Irish Cup
• 2009–10 rugby union tournaments for clubs
• 2009–10 RFU Championship
• 2009–10 in Irish rugby union
• 2009–10 in Welsh rugby union
• 2009–10 in Scottish rugby union
• 2009–10 in British rugby union